Reconstructing the lived experience of disability in antiquity: a case study from Roman Egypt

Over the last thirty years, the development of disability studies as an academic discipline has in turn ensured that interest in disability in historical periods has steadily increased. Initially, scholars presented an overwhelmingly negative view of disability in antiquity, proceeding under the assumption that babies born displaying visible signs of deformity or disability were subjected either to infanticide or exposure, and that individuals who were subsequently identified as suffering from a deformity or disability, or developed either one later in life, were ostracized and unable to make any meaningful contribution to society. It is only over the last decade that this reductive approach has been gradually discredited, and the understanding of disability in antiquity has become increasingly nuanced. To date, one monograph has been published on deformity and disability in the Graeco-Roman world, one monograph on disability in the Greek world and one on disability in the Roman world, and one edited volume on disability in antiquity and another on disability in the Roman world. These have been complemented by investigations into disability in Judaism, Christianity and the Bible

Hair today, gone tomorrow: the use of real, false and artificial hair as votive offerings

No abstract available

Literary and documentary evidence for lay medical practice in the Roman Republic and Empire

The majority of surviving ancient medical literature was written by medical practitioners and produced for the purpose of ensuring the effective diagnosis and treatment of their patients, suggesting an audience of medical professionals ranging from instructors to students. This has led historians to concentrate on the professional medical practitioner and their theories, methods and practices, rather than on lay medical practitioners, or even patients themselves. This chapter seeks to redress this imbalance, and examine the ancient literary and documentary evidence for lay medical theories, methods and practices in the Roman Republic and Empire in an attempt to reconstruct the experiences of lay medical practitioners and their patients. The Roman agricultural treatises of Cato, Varro and Columella, papyri and ostraca from Egypt, and tablets from Britain are investigated, and it is established that the individual’s personal acquisition of knowledge and expertise, not only from medical professionals and works of medical literature, but also from family members and friends, and through trial and error, was considered fundamental to domestic medical practice

When lived ancient religion and lived ancient medicine meet: the household Gods, the household shrine and regimen

This paper argues that there was a strong connection between Roman domestic religious belief and practice and Roman domestic medical practice through the association of the household gods with the household’s health and well-being. It examines six examples of household shrines from Pompeii and the surrounding area to explore how specific non-elite households utilised their personal private religious beliefs and practices in the service of maintaining the health and well-being of their members. These six household shrines take the form of paintings that depict the household gods in conjunction with specific types of foodstuffs, and these foodstuffs are ones which played an important role in Roman regimen

Hair loss as facial disfigurement in Ancient Rome?

No abstract available

Approaches to healing in Roman Egypt

This thesis examines the healing strategies utilised by the inhabitants of Egypt during the Roman period (from the late first century BC to the fourth century AD) in order to investigate how Egyptian, Greek and Roman customs and traditions interacted within the province. It explores the symbiotic relationship between 'professional' and 'amateur' medical practice within Egypt, and examines the ways in which three particularly well-attested health problems - eye complaints, febrile conditions and the injuries inflicted by wild animals - were approached, evaluated and treated. By considering a range of literary, papyrological, archaeological, and anthropological sources, this thesis argues that healing strategies were developed in response to a variety of historical, cultural and social factors, and were intimately connected to the region's climate, geography and natural resources. This thesis, then, presents a fresh and nuanced approach to understanding healing strategies in Roman provincial culture, identifies diagnostic features of healing in material culture and offers an integrated reading of ancient medical literary and documentary papyri, and archaeological evidence. By encompassing the full spectrum of healing strategies available to the inhabitants of the province, and by incorporating elements of medical, surgical, magical and religious healing, it offers a comprehensive and wide-ranging perspective on healing in Roman Egypt, and investigates new approaches to the study of medicine in the Roman world

Bodies of Evidence. Ancient Anatomical Votives Past, Present and Future

The papers presented in this volume are the result of the conference Bodies of Evidence: Re-defining Approaches to the Anatomical Votives that was held at the British School in Rome in 2012. Additional papers area also include